A university for the third financial centre

The late arrival of higher education in Ticino

Ticino was the last region of Switzerland with a national language of its own to obtain a university. The French-speaking cantons had their academies and universities in Geneva, Lausanne and Neuchâtel from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, while Zurich, Bern and Basel built theirs between the Middle Ages and the nineteenth century, and Fribourg founded its bilingual university in 1889. Attempts to found a university in Lugano go back to 1588, when first the Somascan Fathers and then the Jesuits tried and failed. In 1844 the Grand Council approved Stefano Franscini's project for an Accademia ticinese, but the project was shelved because of the canton's financial difficulties and the rivalry between Locarno, Bellinzona and Lugano. Franscini's role in the cantonal school system is described in Chapters C.I and C.II. At least three further attempts in the first half of the twentieth century were equally unsuccessful, while the political argument over whether a small canton could support an academic institution, or should instead send its young people to the universities north of the Alps and to Milan and Pavia, which many Ticinese had always attended, continued.¹ In 1985 the Grand Council approved a project for a centre of continuing education at university level, the "Centro universitario della Svizzera italiana" (CUSI), which the voters rejected in a referendum in 1986. A further decade passed, and a different, more modest model was needed, before the canton created its own university.²

The law that finally created the Università della Svizzera italiana was voted by the Grand Council (Gran Consiglio, the cantonal parliament) in Bellinzona on 3 October 1995. Classes began on 21 October 1996. The university obtained federal recognition in 2000, which made it eligible for federal subsidies on the same basis as the cantonal universities north of the Alps.³ The University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana, SUPSI) followed shortly afterwards. It was established as an autonomous public-law entity by a cantonal law of 11 March 1997 and absorbed several existing technical and professional schools.⁴ Ticino thus acquired the two types of higher education institution that the Swiss system distinguishes, a university with research and doctoral programmes and a university of applied sciences oriented towards professional practice, within eighteen months.

The founding faculties and the financial centre

USI opened with three faculties: the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, and the Faculties of Economics and of Communication Sciences in Lugano.⁵ The choice was deliberate. The Academy of Architecture continued the tradition of the Ticinese architects and builders described in Chapter A.III and attached itself to the international reputation of Mario Botta, one of its founders.⁶ The Faculty of Communication Sciences responded to the growing media and service economy of the canton. The Faculty of Economics had the most direct link to the financial centre. Its own historical account states that it was created in order to "consolidate and to bolster the financial centre" of Ticino, Switzerland's third financial centre after Zurich and Geneva.⁷ A steering committee with the economists Mauro Baranzini, Remigio Ratti and Lanfranco Senn designed a programme that would combine the curriculum of the classic Swiss universities with the approach of business schools such as Bocconi in Milan and the University of St. Gallen. The first dean, the econometrician Pietro Balestra, led the faculty from 1997 to 2001 and recruited several internationally known professors to Lugano.⁸

The orientation towards the financial centre had practical reasons. In 1996 the Ticino banks employed several thousand people. Many of the specialists in portfolio management, risk control, tax and law had been trained in Zurich, in Italy or on the job. A university in Lugano offered the banks a supply of graduates who spoke Italian, knew the Swiss legal system and could be recruited locally. It also offered the canton a way to keep its own young people in Ticino and to attract students from Lombardy, which lies within commuting distance of the Lugano campus. The banking sector has since become a partner of the Faculty of Economics above all in continuing education, as the joint certificate programmes with the sector's training centre, described below, show.⁹

Notes

1. Università della Svizzera italiana, "History", https://usi.ch/en/history (attempts of the Somascan Fathers and the Jesuits documented for 1588; Franscini's "Accademia Ticinese" approved by the Grand Council in 1844 but shelved "due to the financial troubles of the Canton and to the rivalries between the cities of Locarno, Bellinzona and Lugano"; "at least new three attempts" in the first half of the twentieth century). ↩
2. USI, "History" (above) (the Grand Council approved the CUSI as an "institute of continuous education" in 1985; "the project was rejected by referendum in 1986"). ↩
3. Università della Svizzera italiana, "History", https://usi.ch/en/history ("Law on the Università della Svizzera italiana", 3 October 1995; first classes 21 October 1996; federal accreditation 2000). ↩
4. Gran Consiglio della Repubblica e Cantone Ticino, Rapporto 5978 R (3/9 June 2008) on the planning of university policy 2008–2011, https://www4.ti.ch/fileadmin/POTERI/GC/allegati/rapporti/12133_5978r.pdf (SUPSI as "ente autonomo di diritto pubblico istituito dal Cantone Ticino con legge dell'11 marzo 1997"). ↩
5. USI, "History" (above). ↩
6. USI, "History" (above) (1992–1994: Mario Botta takes up a suggestion of Roland Crottaz, president of the ETH Board, for an Academy of Architecture and, mandated by the cantonal government, designs the project together with Councillor of State Giuseppe Buffi). ↩
7. USI Faculty of Economics, "History of the Faculty of Economics", https://www.eco.usi.ch/en/node/7598. ↩
8. USI Faculty of Economics, "History" (above) (Balestra dean 1997–2001; steering committee of Baranzini, Ratti and Senn; models of Bocconi and St. Gallen). ↩
9. USI, "The Swiss Finance Institute realises lifelong learning at USI and Centro Studi Villa Negroni" (3 December 2019), https://www.usi.ch/en/feeds/11559 (Knowledge Exchange Seminars with the CSVN; CAS in Risk Management and in Private Banking and Wealth Management offered by USI and CSVN). The faculty's own historical account, https://www.eco.usi.ch/en/node/7598, does not mention bank sponsorship of chairs. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of August 2025.